


to catch a thief

by fangirl_squee



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gardens & Gardening, M/M, Spring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:20:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23749012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_squee/pseuds/fangirl_squee
Summary: A flower thief causes trouble in Samot's garden.
Relationships: Fero Feritas/Samol, Samot/Samothes (Friends at the Table)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	to catch a thief

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Lu, for [the idea](https://twitter.com/smallpolar_bear/status/1214640709082525702).

Samot had been so looking forward to spring. Samol had badged him into actually doing something with their front garden and they’d spent many hours together with their hands in the soil, planting new bulbs and settling new plants into the soil. Now, spring was finally here, and he could go out and collect flowers from his own garden.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen you so excited about the concept of flowers,” said Samothes.

“I have many plans for them,” said Samot, “bouquets, pressings - did you know you can even eat some of them?”

Samothes’ hands stilled over the breakfast he was making them. “How do they taste?”

Samot waved a hand. “They are so beautiful it hardly matters.”

“Such a thing is only true of you,” said Samothes. “I would prefer to only eat flowers that taste good.”

Samot frowned and Samothes turned more towards him, leaning over the counter to kiss Samot.

“I’m sure they don’t taste  _ terrible _ , otherwise people wouldn’t eat them,” said Samot.

“As you are an expert on flowers now I will trust your judgement,” said Samothes, “If there are any there we can add them to breakfast.”

Samot kissed him back, leaning towards Samothes’ warm body for a moment before he turned away to head out into the garden, a basket over his arm. It was perhaps a little over the top, but he was quite excited by the thought of his first harvest.

When he got outside however, the harvest was not quite as large as he thought. Samot frowned. He’d been sure there had been more nasturtium flowers blooming when he’d looked through the garden the evening before. Perhaps it was just his hopeful imagination.

He headed back inside, the bunch of the flowers in his basket smaller than he’d hoped for but bright and colourful all the same.

Samothes smiled, plating up the breakfast as Samot walked towards him. “And which ones of those are we eating?”

“I think I’ll press these instead,” said Samot, “there wasn’t as many of the edible flowers as I thought.”

“Ah well,” said Samothes solemnly, “perhaps next time.”

Next time Samot looked, there were even less.

“But shouldn’t they be growing  _ more _ flowers?” said Samot. “And those bulbs we planted have barely come up at all!”

Samol hummed thoughtfully. “They’re probably on their way. Takes them a minute, even when we have good weather.”

Samot frowned, gesturing towards the large bouquet that sat in the middle of Samol’s table. It was a riot of colour, grape hyacinth and azaleas and tulips and daisies and sunflowers, with even some small pansies poking out from around the bottom.

“You don’t seem to have that problem.”

“I didn’t grow those ones, someone gave them to me for my birthday,” said Samol. He put a hand on Samot’s shoulder. “You’’ll get the hang of waiting for them soon enough.”

Samot huffed a breath, feeling as though he were a teenager again, Samol coaching him through some trouble he was having with his schoolwork.

“I could come around if it would make you feel better,” said Samol, “we can take a look at them together.”

“Oh, dad, you don’t have to…”

“I’m retired, I got nothing but time,” said Samol, “I’ll come round tomorrow morning, set your mind at ease.”

Samol easily found the problem when he arrived, bending close to one of the azaleas. He huffed a laugh, leaning back.

“What is it?” said Samot, “is it some kind of bug? Are they dying? It had flowers one day and then the next they were gone-”

“I can see why,” said Samol, “someone’s come by and cut them off. Look, here.”

Samot knelt closer to the plant. Now that he was looking for it, he could see where the stem had been cut, deep enough within the plant that he couldn’t see it from the outside.

“I can’t  _ believe _ someone would do that!” said Samot.

“I’m sure people got their reasons.”

“Like  _ what _ ,” said Samot.

An odd look came over Samol’s face. “I suppose he must have liked the look of your flowers and decided to make a bouquet.”

“He?”

Samol blinked, looking back at Samot. “Whoever took your flowers.”

Samot looked back at his poor, bare azalea bush. “So what do I do now?”

“Find some way of making him - whoever it is - stop taking them I suppose.”

“I could build a fence,” offered Samothes, later that night.

Samot sighed, stretching out against him. “But I want an  _ open _ garden. I wouldn’t mind if people stopped by  _ some _ times and took a  _ few _ flowers, I just want to stop this one person from stealing them all, all the time.”

Samothes hummed. “Let me think about it.”

It took Samothes a few days to come up with his version of a solution: a series of cameras aimed at the front yard. Samot watched him install them, arms crossed.

“I’ll take them down as soon as we catch him,” said Samothes, “if he’s here as often as you think, we’ll easily get a photo of him.”

“And then what?”

“We can put them up around the neighbourhood,” said Samothes, “It’ll probably scare whoever it is off if they think they’ll get in trouble. And if that doesn’t work I’ll think of something else.”

“You are not installing a perimeter alarm,” said Samot.

“I didn’t say I was,” said Samothes, “I have other ideas.”

Despite Samot’s reluctance, he dutifully checked the footage each night. It didn’t take long for their culprit to appear. Samot called out for Samothes, his voice perhaps a touch too frantic for what the situation called for.

“What is it, are you alright?”

“I’ve got him!” said Samot, gesturing to the screen, “There’s the criminal!”

Samothes looked at the screen. “Huh.”

“What?”

“He just doesn’t look how I’d thought he would, that’s all,” said Samothes.

Samot looked at the screen. The footage was a little fuzzy, but he could see a young man in a faded band t-shirt creeping towards their house in the very early hours of the morning. He walked through the garden, examining each plant carefully before he went through again, cutting off flowers and placing them gently inside a plastic bag before he walked away.

“Well,” said Samot firmly, “I don’t care how he looks. We’ll see how much he likes having his picture plastered around the neighbourhood.”

He spent most of the next day sticking the posters up around the block, stopping back at the house just as Maelgwyn was arriving to help.

“Good, you’re here,” said Samot, pushing a pile of the posters into Maelgwyn’s arms, “put these up on the next block, I want to get as big of a radius of awareness as possible.”

“Sure,” said Maelgwyn, “How far do you- wait, why do you have a picture of Fero on here?”

Samot dropped the posters he was holding. “ _ What _ ?”

“Fero,” said Maelgwyn, “you know, the guy grandpa’s- uh. A friend of grandpa.”

“Samol knows this man?” said Samot.

“Um. Yeah, they’re uh, they’re good friends,” said Maelgwyn, “Actually, dad, y’know, I just realised I have to help Castille with this thing-”

“What?” said Samot.

“No, yeah, it’s super important, I totally forgot, sorry,” said Maelgwyn, pushing the posters back into Samot’s hands. “I, uh, I have to go, so uh. Yeah, sorry. Good luck with the posters and everything, bye.”

He left quickly, leaving Samot staring after him.

Samothes poked his head around the doorway. “I thought I heard Maelgwyn?”

“You did, he just left,” said Samot faintly.

Samothes frowned, stepping towards Samot. “Are you alright?”

“He said dad knows this young man,” said Samot.

“He does?”

“Yes, Mael said they were friends.”

“He looks a bit young to be a friend of our fathers,” said Samothes skeptically.

“Yes, I-” Samot shook himself. “I’m going to take this photo over to show him. Surely if he knows this young man he can get him to stop.”

“If he can’t I will,” said Samothes.

They walked the block over to Samol’s. Samot stared at the posters he’d already put up as they passed them, scowling at the cheerful face of the young man. Samothes, perhaps wisely, staying silent, holding Samot’s hand as they walked.

Samot opened the door without knocking, calling out for Samol. There was no answer, but the unlocked door meant he had to be home, and so Samot continued through towards the back garden.

Samol was in fact there, shears in hands as he pruned one of the trees. Next to him was the young man on the posters, smiling at Samol as he went up on tiptoes to hold the branch steady for Samol to cut.

“ _ You _ !” said Samot.

Fero let go of the branch, taking a step back. “Uh, hi?"

“This man is a  _ thief _ !” continued Samot and he stormed towards Fero.

Fero took a step forward. “So?”

Samol put a hand on Fero’s shoulder, reaching forwards with the other to stop Samot.

“You stole my flowers!” yelled Samot, “What did you even  _ want _ them for?”

To his surprise, Fero blushed. “I gave them to someone.”

“You  _ gave _ them to someone?”

“Yeah,” said Fero, “It was his birthday.”

“I just don’t see why you thought you had the right to come in and steal mine,” said Samot.

“They were the prettiest ones on the block,” said Fero.

Samot stilled. “Oh, well. Thank you. But I didn’t actually get to see them.”

Fero shifted on his feet. “Yeah, I, uh. Sorry, I guess.”

“And?” said Samol.

Fero let out a breath. “And I won’t do it anymore I  _ guess _ .”

“Well that solves that,” said Samol, “no more flower thieving and you still have plenty of spring left to see the flowers.”

Samot’s could feel his anger fading. It was always harder to feel in Samol’s presence. “I… suppose, yes.”

“Good,” said Samol. “Now, did you have any other reason for coming to see your father, or were you just coming round to interrogate me about this young man?”

“I did bring something for afternoon tea,” said Samothes, “We had some flowers left so I baked them into cookies.”

Samol looked down at Fero, who shrugged. “Sure. We could probably use a break, right?”

Samol smiled, his hand lingering on Fero’s shoulder for a moment before he leant back. “Alright. Let’s get cleaned up and we can all sit down.”

  
  


\----

  
  


“Wow, that was close,” said Fero, after Samot and Samothes left.

Samol huffed a laugh. “You didn’t tell me those flowers were from my son’s garden.”

“Didn’t know they were,” said Fero. “I just saw them and thought you’d like them.”

“I did,” said Samol, smiling down at him, “but maybe I’ll go over where my family lives in the neighbourhood, in case you feel the need to bring me flowers again some other time.”

Fero thought for a moment. “Probably a good idea, yeah.”

"Planning on bringing me more flowers?"

"I might be," said Fero, "you'll just have to wait and see."

"Suppose I will," said Samol, leaning down towards him.

Fero leant up to kiss Samol, breathing in deeply the smell of the flowers around them. He’d leave Samot’s alone. The ones in Samol’s garden were his favourite anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> It probably takes another two months for samot and samothes to put the pieces together.
> 
> come say hi: mariusperkins on most places


End file.
